clarifying

«clarifying» in Mova's school dictionary: Making something clearer or easier to understand, by… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

present participle and adjective of clarify (clarify, clarifies, clarified, clarifying)

meaning for a pupil

1) Making something clearer or easier to understand, by explaining it more. tree →

2) (cooking) Making a liquid, such as butter or soup, clear by removing the bits in it. tree →

3) (adjective) Helping to make something clear: «a clarifying question». tree →

sense in the lessons

In school pupils ask clarifying questions when they don't understand the task: «Do you mean the total or the difference?» In maths, clarifying the question before solving stops mistakes. In cooking, clarified butter has the white milky part taken out. Phrases: «a clarifying question», «clarifying the rules», «clarified butter».

examples

• Can I ask a clarifying question, please? tree →
• The teacher was clarifying the rules of the game. tree →
• Thanks for clarifying that; now I understand. tree →
• Clarifying the question first helps you solve it. tree →
• Mum is clarifying butter for the curry. tree →
• The coach drew a picture, clarifying where everyone should stand. tree →

note

Spelling: clarify → clarifies, clarified (y changes to i), but clarifying keeps the y. Noun: clarification. Formal-ish; in everyday speech people say «explain» or «make clear».

In the corpora

• A clarifying question asks about one part you did not understand, such as "What does 'erupt' mean?"
• A clarifying question asks what a word or idea means before arguing about it.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «clarifying» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.